Meat cutter in question...

Hello everyone, I currently work as a meat cutter in a local grocery store. I enjoy the actual work that needs to be done each day, but I am in question about what I do because it is dead flesh of an animal that i work with (chicken, pork, and beef, sometimes fish.) I am personally a meat eater currently. Yet, I have been increasing discussed with meat due to the fact that it comes from a living creature. I enjoy the work, and really can't see myself doing anything else, but how can I deal with the two sides of my feelings? Thanks, Bertup

If it's causing you to feel more empathy for the animals we feed off of that sounds like a positive thing. I can only suggest processing those feelings a little more...maybe read a little about the animal industry and about going vegan and decide if that's something you want to try.

I transitioned pretty gradually. I didn't set out with veganism as an end-goal, I just wanted to reduce how much I contributed to animal suffering. But it turned out to be so easy and rewarding I had no excuse not to go full vegan by the end, and now I can't imagine going back. Other people just switch to full vegan overnight, but I'd only recommend that if you are feeling very committed to making the change.

I worked in produce for many years - I loved it. I wasn't even vegan or vegetarian at the time. I'll bet you could transfer within your local grocery store if you were interested.

I was in a similar situation as a chef. However, I was lucky to be able to spend time retraining into a new career. I no longer work as a chef, and use those old skills to fuel my vegan lifestyle instead. It took some adapting and time to transition into a new career, but it is possible for you too. I also loved being a chef, but as a vegan I could not stomach working with animal flesh. It was okay in the beginning, but I soon found myself disgusted by it. I knew I wasn't going back to eating animal flesh, so I had to embrace a new career.